ΑΛΛΗΛΕΓΓΥΗ ΣΤΗΝ ΕΕ: ΕΞΕΛΙΞΕΙΣ ΣΤΟ ΠΕΔΙΟ ΤΗΣ ΠΡΟΣΦΥΓΙΚΗΣ ΠΡΟΣΤΑΣΙΑΣ ΚΑΙ ΠΡΟΚΛΗΣΕΙΣ ΣΤΗΝ ΕΕ ΚΑΙ ΣΤΗΝ ΕΛΛΑΔΑ

222 Examining applications under administrative detention tions of the institution 12 . In the case of an asylum seeker who has experienced state-sponsored violence, administrative detention may worsen feeling of mis- trust and fear, even towards the examiner who conducts the interview 13 . In addition, an important implication related to an individual’s claim is the re- striction of access to material supporting his case. Administrative detention poses physical obstacles regarding collection of evidence, personal documents, testi- monials of friends and relatives and joint family applications. Most of the time 14 , asylum seekers are poorly informed about their rights, cannot choose a lawyer of their preference, enjoy restricted support of NGO’s and have limited time and means to prepare for their interview. While all the above put a considerable strain on the physical and mental wellbeing of all detained asylum seekers, as well as on their ability to support their applica- tions, in the case of asylum seekers who are already vulnerable, the aforemen- tioned adverse effects of administrative detention are gravely intensified. For the purposes of the particular discussion and in order to examine the issue as thor- oughly as possible, we find it necessary to categorize asylum seekers in detention, according to their specific needs, in four groups: victims of torture, women, LGBT- QIs and minors. This categorization, deriving from the findings of current research is theoretical and aims not to establish an approach in which vulnerability can be measured in numbers or by comparison, but to throw light to all the different as- pects of the same problem. To begin with, victims of torture, by definition have already experienced traumat- ic events that are probable to have had deteriorating effects on their mental and physical well-being. Detention, which can be regarded as a traumatic situation on its own, as argued above, may trigger the revival of these past traumatic events, thus affecting the interview of the individual 15 . When a person recalls a memory in order to share a part of his personal history, he uses what is called ‘autobiographi- cal memory’, a procedure defined by partly reliving the specific event that memo- ry refers to. This kind of memories in addition to the oral narration, are comprised by imagistic, olfactory, auditory and kinaesthetic components, which may trigger 12. M.S.S. v. Belgium and Greece (Application no. 30696/09) Grand Chamber Judgment, 21 January 2011. 13. Handbook and Guidelines on Procedures and Criteria for Determining Refugee Status under the 1951 Convention and the 1967 Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees, UNHCR, Geneva, December 2011. 14. For instance, see Annual Reports of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention to the Human Rights Council concerning field visits and individual cases, available at ohchr. org. 15. Civil Society Report on the Detention of Vulnerable Asylum Seekers and Irregular Migrants in the European Union, June 2010, esp. pages 164-169.